Trauma 411: Prolonged surgery should be avoided in cer...(hey compared patient outcomes in about 2...),Health

"We found that patients with life-threatening injuries, such as chest contusions or liver lacerations in association to multiple bone fractures, and who have surgery for six or more hours do not always do as well," says Dr. Pape. "If you limit the amount of time in the operating room to less than three hours, patients appear to do better."

In the more severe cases, study authors say it is ideal to taper the amount of surgery. It is important to monitor blood pressure, pulmonary function and immune function to see if patients are stable enough to undergo further surgery.

The benefit of scheduling surgery to repair fractures over the span of several days is that it allows the trauma patient to recover from every surgical procedure before moving forward with the next one.

Timing is key in patients with life-threatening injuries. "There needs to be close communication between the orthopaedic surgeon, the general surgeon and ICU staff," says Dr. Pape. "All members of the care team need to re-evaluate the patient throughout the process to see if it is safe to fix the next fracture."

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